CHESHIRE, Mass. — Vera H. (Janowycz) Socha, 73 of Cheshire, died after a long journey with a difficult disease, she was in her home with her son close by, on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025.

She was born March 15, 1951 in a displaced person's camp in Munich, Germany to Ukrainian parents displaced by war. Within a year after Vera's birth, the young family relocated to USA, first arriving in Cleveland, Ohio. After a small number of years in Cleveland, they discovered the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts and relocated one last time to Cheshire, where they started a family dairy farm. It was in the Berkshires she had the vast majority of her schooling, graduating from Adams Memorial High School in 1969. Living on the family dairy farm gave Vera a direct connection with animals, plants and nature early on in life, and the Berkshires also was where she began to make life long friends that know her even to this day.

Vera went to UMASS Amherst and obtained a Bachelor's degree in medical-nursing skills, graduating in 1973. She went on to apply her schooling in several different ways. Earlier on she worked in Pittsfield with Family Planning/Tapestry Health. Eventually, she went on to work in a doctor's office helping patients with health assessments the doctor ordered. Looking for a new change she went to work for a Life Insurance Agency, which became an adventurous and unique job for her. In this position Vera was able to travel throughout western Massachusetts meeting people who were applying for life insurance and doing health analytics on them as part of their application process. The job let her explore very deeply the unique and beautiful landscapes and ecology of western Massachusetts. Many people came to see her as making their experience much nicer than they thought it would be due to her humorous and genuine personality.

There was a creativeness to Vera, too. This creativeness came out the most through her knitting and working with gardens and potted plants/flower. Her knitted items would range from simple hats and mittens, to complex sweaters and blankets. She became quite a factory for creating knitted products, so much so, that for some years Vera sold her knitted items at local shops with people purchasing all items regularly. Vera also occasionally participated in knitting hats for premature born babies to stay warm, and any chance she'd get to knit someone something she would make excuse to do it. She also had a special connection with plants, which allowed her to create beautiful gardens around her home in Cheshire as well as potted plants/flowers for inside the house. She had a certain kind of vision for placement of what kind of species of plant in what area, so that both the plant would thrive as well as be aesthetically pleasing to see at the same time. And her son gives credit to her skill reflected in his own understanding of plant ecology, gardening and landscape aesthetics.

Vera was interested in the silence and natural essence of the Earth, she enjoyed rustling leaves and their smell in the autumn when she went on her walks and hikes in them. In the snow, she enjoyed snowshoeing and always made time to commune with the natural world regularly. She continued to make connection with the natural world in whatever ways she could, even once she became much more limited due to her difficult disease she was diagnosed with in 2014.

Her other interests throughout her life included travel (both local, nationally and internationally), reading books and enjoying visiting with friends. She practiced keeping these activities in her life as long as she could. She said "I believe in the power of the written word." Over the years, she had developed a small little library of her own at home being the devoted reader she was.

Although Vera struggled with a difficult disease, she remained to embody a persistent positivity that did not stop even in her final days, and this indeed is one of her lasting lessons to us all. Her enormously great sense of humor everyone got touched with was a gift too. And she always said; "I'm going kicking and screaming" and it was true! At moment of her death, the most powerful winter storm in many years began!

Vera had requested there be no calling hours and no services for her. This summer of 2025 there will be a Celebration of Life made for her TBA.

Memorial donations can go to Berkshire Visiting Nurse Association (413) 447-2862 - berkshirehealthsystems.org/programs-and-services/home-care/
    
Vera H. (Janowycz) Socha leaves behind her longtime friend Tom Granger of Adams and her feline friend Emma. She also leaves behind and her son, Eric Socha, who she claimed in her final weeks to be her hero, and the finest person she ever knew.